1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns performing remote maintenance and servicing of a network peripheral device over the World Wide Web or other network.
2. Description of the Related Art
Traditionally, when a peripheral device, such as a copier, required manufacturer""s maintenance or servicing, the end user contacted the company""s technical support or servicing department which then dispatched a service technician to visit the user""s site and service the device. In addition, in many cases a service technician would visit the user""s site on a periodic basis to perform scheduled maintenance.
Thus, the traditional method of providing maintenance and service for a device ordinarily required a service technician to physically visit the site where the device is located. Moreover, several visits might be required if, upon the first visit, the technician discovered that he did not have with him one or more tools or parts to further diagnose or correct a discovered problem.
Accordingly, there has long existed a need to reduce the number of site visits required to be made by service technicians, and when a site visit is required, to provide the service technician with advance information regarding any problems that might exist.
Point-to-point modem connections have been used in the past to accomplish some of these goals. However, installing a modem in the peripheral device is many times redundant, as most large organizations maintain modem bank servers on their LANS. Additionally, such a technique requires the peripheral device to have access to an available analog phone line, which is often difficult to find large companies.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to address the foregoing difficulties by providing methods and apparatuses by which certain servicing and maintenance of a network peripheral device can be performed remotely, such as from a centralized service organization of a device manufacturer, over a network, such as the World Wide Web. By providing servicing and maintenance according to the present invention, the number of site visits required to accomplish those tasks can be reduced, and in the event that a site visit is still deemed necessary, problems with the network peripheral device can be discovered in advance, enabling the service technician to better prepare to repair the problem. As used herein, a xe2x80x9cnetwork peripheral devicexe2x80x9d means a peripheral device together with a network board for communicating over a network.
Accordingly, in one aspect, the present invention services a network peripheral device connected to a network via a router. Initially, a first packet is sent from the remote service organization to the network peripheral device via the network, the first packet including a request for servicing information from the network peripheral device. Next, a second packet sent from the network peripheral device to the remote service organization via the network is received, the second packet including the requested peripheral servicing information. Finally, a third packet is sent from the remote service organization to the network peripheral device via the network, the third packet including an instruction to execute a peripheral servicing function.
In another aspect of the invention, a network peripheral device connected to a network via a router obtains remote servicing instructions over the network. Initially, a first packet sent from a remote service organization is received via the network, the first packet including a request for servicing information from the network peripheral device. Next a second packet is sent automatically upon receipt of the first packet from the network peripheral device to the remote service organization via the network, the second packet including the requested peripheral servicing information. Thereafter, a third packet sent from the remote service organization to the network peripheral device via the network is received, the third packet including an instruction to execute a peripheral servicing function. Finally, the peripheral servicing function is executed automatically in response to the third packet.
This brief summary has been provided so that the nature of the invention may be understood quickly. A more complete understanding of the invention can be obtained by reference to the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments thereof in connection with the attached drawings.